Industry Solution
Aerospace and Defense
Explore aerospace FPGA design examples for Direct RF, channelization and synchronized data paths, with tools and resources for hardware evaluation.
FPGAs built for modern defense systems
High-performance FPGAs have become pivotal in advancing military technology, offering advanced capabilities for defense applications. As military operations increasingly rely on real-time data processing, secure communications, and sophisticated signal processing, FPGAs provide a flexible, high-performance, and long lifecycle solution. These versatile semiconductor components can be reconfigured to meet evolving needs, enabling rapid adaptation to emerging threats and complex scenarios. With their ability to handle high-speed computations and integrate with various systems, high-performance FPGAs are at the forefront of enhancing operational effectiveness, ensuring hardware level security, and supporting next-generation military technologies.
The Challenges, and Why FPGA
The Challenge
Real-time data demands
Radar and EW need fast processing of high-bandwidth sensor data.
Why FPGA
Parallel, low-latency processing
FPGAs process signals and track targets in real time.
The Challenge
Mission requirements evolve
Evolving threats, protocols, and operations demand rapid design updates.
Why FPGA
Reconfigurable adaptability
Update logic and protocols as mission needs change—without replacing hardware.
The Challenge
Secure, resilient communications
Sensitive data calls for encryption, tamper resistance, and resilient operation.
Why FPGA
Strict SWaP and lifecycle limits
Platforms must balance performance, power, size, weight, and long service life.
The Challenge
Strict SWaP and lifecycle limits
Platforms must balance performance, power, size, weight, and long service life.
Why FPGA
Power-efficient integration
Combine high performance and adaptable logic in compact systems.
Why Altera
Efficient by design
Process radar and communications workloads at high speed with low power in compact FPGA designs.
Ready for changing missions
Reconfigure deployed FPGAs to address emerging threats, new protocols, and changing mission needs.
Security integrated
Protect sensitive data with built-in encryption, tamper resistance, and custom security protocols.
Long-life flexibility
Keep systems mission-ready with long-lifecycle FPGAs and updates that avoid hardware replacement.
Aerospace and Defense Applications
Radar
High-performance FPGA SoCs for real-time radar signal capture, processing, beamforming, tracking.
Electronic Warfare (EW)
Reconfigurable FPGA solutions for low-latency, deterministic, and wideband electronic support, protection, and attack modalities.
Secure Communication
Software-defined, SWaP-optimized FPGAs for secure, tamper-resistant military communications.
Avionics
Powering Safer, Smarter Avionics with DO-254-Capable FPGAs. Enabling high-performance cockpit displays, sensor fusion, and mission-critical computing.
Drones & UAVs
Scalable FPGAs from Group 1 to Group 5 unmanned systems and decoy platforms
Precision Guided Munitions
FPGAs for guidance, navigation, and target identification in SWaP-C-constrained munitions.
Get Started
Common Questions
Reproduction needs the exact device and board, converter hardware, Quartus and IP versions, licenses, clock configuration and example assets. Record the expected stimulus and output checks before adapting the design to custom hardware.
Prefer a DSP Builder example when its model-based algorithm and supported target fit the workload and accelerate validation. Hand-written RTL offers direct control over interfaces and microarchitecture when the example's assumptions or generated implementation do not fit.
Subclass 1 uses a system reference mechanism to establish repeatable interface timing in a correctly configured system. Deterministic link latency does not by itself guarantee analog phase alignment; converter, clock and calibration behavior must also be verified.
Verify the example's port configuration, clocks, bus widths, traffic pattern and measurement endpoints. Measure sustained throughput and backpressure on the reproduced build rather than treating the catalog's aggregate bandwidth as a guarantee for every configuration.
A known stimulus separates interface failures from DSP configuration errors. Confirm sample ordering, numerical scaling, expected channel positions and overflow behavior before adding live RF inputs or changing the filter configuration.